Chapter 12 The Dragon's Breath

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Because it was cold, it wasn’t the best time of the year to visit Cracov. The pros of having not so many tourists around, crowding the city with their need to see all and be everywhere at all cost, outweighed the cons of dealing with low temperatures. Robert and Lena made some tourist shopping in Sukiennice; apart from the typical dragon figurines, they bought warm gloves and caps made of sheep wool. Later on, they equipped themselves with tickets to the Cracov’s underground museum and for a few hours, they were admiring the medieval world of the city, where its old soul and dug-up artifacts were preserved and exhibited somewhere in between new technology gadgets, multimedia boards, holograms and movie screenings.

‘Imagine, they will make museums about us some day,’ Robert was visibly excited ‘Our technology will be as funny or as pathetic as the tools people used in the middle ages.They will look at our clothes and they will say that we looked terrible. Or they will organize fancy dress parties and everyone will dress up as people from our times. And we will be long gone.’

‘You already live in a museum. Have you seen your room? There’s not one thing which is modern. You don’t even have a Facebook profile.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because I tried to locate you? Get to know you a little bit better? Add you as a friend because we live together? To check whether you are a psycho maniac or a murderer, take it or leave it. But I couldn’t find you anywhere.’

Robert shrugged.

‘See, this is not my thing. I’ve never even done this online dating. I’m rather old fashioned...’

‘Facebook! Internet! Gosh, why am I so stupid?!’

Lena hit her gloved hand on her forehead.

‘What do you mean?’

‘We can check the names on the Univerity website! This is so obvious! Give me the paper.’

Lena took out her smart phone and managed to locate the wireless internet connection. It took her another couple of minutes to find people, whose names were provided to them not so long before.

‘Look. They are all from different departments. Only Kieliszek teaches at my department. One guy is a doctorate student at geography department, one at linguistics, one woman has lectures at biology department, there are two men from comparative studies.’

‘Do they have anything in common? Can you see how old they are?’

‘I would have to check each one individually. There are only years in which they graduated. We can calculate, taking into account that they started studies straight after high-school and didn’t have any adventures along the way. Kieliszek is 35. Geography man 29, linguistics - 41, biology woman 37, one guy from comparative studies is 43, the other 51. There doesn’t seem to be any connection.’

‘Check their publications! Maybe they have something in common.’

For the next twenty minutes, Lena was analyzing the titles of publications of the academics from the list, but she had difficulty in understanding what they were really writing about.

‘I see nothing. I don’t really get every second word. It’s either too abstract or too specific. Maybe they know each other from some conferences? Or they had mutual research at some point. I don’t know. I always felt out of the place at the University. It’s not really for me,’ Lena gave herself a moment’s thought, ‘Unless the only thing they have in common is the fact that they happened to be on the same train...’

Robert Rej laughed.

‘It’s a good point, actually. We should find out more about them. Maybe they have some family in Cracov. Or another reason to be here. We don’t know anything about Tamka’s relationship with Cracov. When we get back to Warsaw, I will check his phone calls and definitely his mail box and online activity.’

They started getting tired. Now Lena suggested killing time by visiting a brand shop of Wawel chocolates and she bought some limited-edition chocolate bars and caramels. With their mouths full of candy they decided to climb up the hill to see the Wawel Castle.

Wawel was different than the Royal Castle they used to pass in the Old Town of Warsaw. It was situated on a lonesome hill, over-viewing the Vistula River and surrounded by a thick wall. It was still magnificent and reminded them of times when Poland was ruled by kings and queens. The courtyard was full of tourists walking vigorously from one exhibition to another. Robert and Lena chose to visit only the Royal Chambers and the Dragon’s Lair, as they were exhausted from travel and walks in the museum. Lena especially enjoyed the ceilings of the Royal chambers and, as far as it would be pleasant and luxurious to inhabit chambers in the millionaire’s castle, she wouldn’t like to give up her privacy for being in the spotlight. She wouldn’t like to rule just for the sake of staring endlessly at ornamented ceilings and sleeping in a four-poster bed. Even having servants didn’t make up for everything that went along with holding power over a country.

‘This is splendid!’, Robert was again amused and analyzed every detail of paintings, furniture and fabrics, especially arrases hanging on the walls, ‘Sometimes in my room, I feel like a citizen of a different epoch. Imagine that you lived in the seventeenth or eighteenth century! Imagine that you were a part of some royal family, or even their closest, most trusted friend! ’

‘I do appreciate my deodorant and shower gel, Robert. And the fact that I can go to the toilet, use a toilet paper and flush the water. I also wouldn’t like to wear a wig and take a bath once a year and cover my stench with perfumes.’

‘You’re so cynical! I don’t get you guys! When I was a child I used to play outside, breathe the fresh air, enjoy life. Kids right now only play computer games and waste time online.’

‘That’s because the most interesting things also moved to the Internet, Robert. It’s you who needs to be updated, I’m afraid.’

The Dragon’s Lair forced them to walk down the stairs to a cave dug up in the ground, lighted by a set of little lights. The Wawel Dragon waited for them just at the bottom of the entrance and from time to time it entertained them with the release of flames. The iron figure was surrounded by children, who anxiously waited for each of its fiery breaths.

‘Look!’, Lena pulled Robert’s sleeve ‘Kieliszek! She’s there with some people!’

Lena pointed at a group of people taking a stroll along the Vistula River just some twenty meters away from the Dragon’s figure. Robert noticed Kieliszek’s red coat and loose hair. He also recognized a few faces from the Internet pictures among the people, who were with her. Some of them were definitely the lecturers Lena found on the University website.

‘Let’s follow them!’

Robert nodded and pulled his woolen cap to cover his face from cold air. Luckily for them, they managed to blend in between the countless groups of tourists who decided to take a stroll nearby the Castle. In their winter garments, they looked unrecognizable. They kept a distance from Kieliszek’s group, but they made sure not to lose them from sight.

The group of academics decided to stroll back to the merchant houses in the Cracov’s Old Town. Robert and Lena followed them for some time until they disappeared behind the doors of one of the buildings. A few moments later Robert and Lena approached the place. It was ‘Alchemia’, a bar located in the Cracov’s Estery street. The inside of the bar gave the atmosphere of a real alchemy laboratory or some magical place occupied by the old witches of Cracov. The furniture reminded Lena of the furniture they had in their flat, as bar’s guests were sitting at a round, possibly pre-war, tables and pre-war chairs. The walls were covered with pictures, while the ceilings didn’t look anything like the ones in the Royal Castle’s, but they were definitely ornamented and original.

The dim light of the place shaded their faces. The group of academics was occupying one big round table to the right. Lena and Robert managed to squeeze by a little square one just next to the wall, without raising anyone’s attention. They ordered two glasses of beer and tried to eavesdrop their conversation.

‘I’m exhausted!’ Kieliszek said, sipping on her beer, ‘It was such a hard day at work. And tomorrow we will have to do twice as much in the same amount of time!’

A man sitting next to her nodded in confirmation.

‘Yeah, I cannot feel my body! I’m afraid I sprained my ankle. I hope it heels till tomorrow.’

Another academic ordered a bowl of nuts and a drink.

‘Good that they feed us! Imagine, we would never have enough strength if we hadn’t had such a hearty breakfast. The train journey is exhausting as well!’

‘Yes, but we tried flying at some point and half of you were jet lagged after an hour. It doesn’t make sense. We could rent some bus or a coach of some sort, but it’s just too much fuss. Let’s stick to the train!’

Another woman said something but Robert and Lena couldn’t hear what it was.

‘Do you think they will find Tamka?’ one of the men asked.

‘I hope not. If they find him, he might tell everything. That would be a disaster.’

‘I didn’t say that they might find him alive.’

‘Don’t say that!’, the woman hushed the man, ‘It would be terrible. He’s one of us. It could happen to any of us. I actually hope that he is doing fine.’

‘He caused problems. You all admit that his last months weren’t the best. Maybe he wanted to quit?’

‘He probably saved some money and went for a long holiday. He deserved it. He was working so hard.’

The group laughed at some joke Robert and Lena couldn’t hear. Then they agreed to call it a night, left the bar and decided to come back to a hotel. Robert and Lena were left alone at the ‘Alchemia’ table.

‘That didn’t help much. They don’t know what happened to Tamka.’ Lena was obviously disappointed.

‘But they know him better than we do. And they are definitely doing something in Cracov. Will they work twice as much tomorrow? I wonder what kind of work they have in mind. We will check tomorrow’s conference. If they don’t attend, it’s definitely not academic work.’

‘At least we know that they will continue to travel by train. We should just follow them on their journey.’

‘Yeah. We should find somewhere to sleep. I haven’t booked anything. And we’re low on the budget after we bought those caps.’

‘At least they are warm. The temperatures are depressing. I hope we will find something at this time.’

What they managed to find was a single room in a hostel with a bed for a couple. The room was so small that the bed touched the wall on each side and there was only a small space between the door and the bed for a bedtime table and a tiny rectangle of space before the bathroom door.

‘I won’t sleep on the floor. It’s freezing.’, Robert crossed his arms in a defensive position.

Lena bit her lip.

‘Fine. But if you even try to touch me, you will hear the loudest screams and have your penis amputated!’

‘Why would I even try?’

‘I don’t know. You might have some weird sexual fantasy or a dream that I’m a boy. Or this Anton student.’

Robert Rej smiled silently as the fantasy was an actual possibility.

‘You can sleep on the floor if you want.’

Lena ignored him. After an hour they were sleeping in one bed, but since the hostel’s heating was terrible, they were still wearing the caps and gloves and they were still in their daily clothes. The fact that they were lying together was actually mutually appreciated as, unintentionally, they gave each other some of the heat of their bodies. The night was cold and windy. And when they woke up a thick layer of snow covered the city just as smog tended to cover is leisurely aura at all times.